Magnetically actuated, reed-type switches are fairly-well known, and are quite reliable in the present state of the art. They are particularly valuable and useful in situations where electrical contacts are necessary, but the inevitable arcing of the electrical switching would be hazardous. Not only would the arcing be hazardous in combustible atmospheres, but the atmosphere itself may be damaging to the switch contacts. The oxygen in the air oxidizes the contacts; the caustic vapors in the air corrode the contacts; and the dust in the air causes malfunction of the contacts.
However, most of the reed-type switches and their magnetic controls are single units, designed for specific installations or functions, and may or may not be adaptable to other uses.
A possible exception is seen in the Rotary Reed Switch of Weisenburger, U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,789, issued May 2, 1972. Here the switches have a cylindrical configuration to provide a comparatively compact device. The magnet is mounted on a central rotor to actuate the switches in turn as it is rotated. However, there is no flexibility of control taught or suggested here. There is only one layer of reed switches shown or within the scope of this device, and only one magnetic function. This inherently limits the switch to a simple rotary switching function that in no way anticipates the dual, complex and variable switching functions that are possible with the subject device.
Compound switches are also very well known and have many types including the common rotary switches that can have a plurality of peripheral contacts to be actuated in a variety of ways, in continuous or reciprocal motions, to provide an almost infinite variation of switching functions. Each layer of rotary switches can provide several functions and many layers of switches can be used to provide various additional combinations of functions.
However, almost all of the rotary switches must have fixed contacts, and once a given switching sequence is set up on any one of the layers of switches, it cannot be changed without rebuilding or rewiring the switch. In any case almost all of the conventional, rotary switches would have the inevitable arcing problems that would preclude their use in certain areas, as well as the susceptibility to oxidation, corrosion and malfunction, as noted earlier. Lastly, almost all of these compound switches may be limited in the amount of current and voltage that they can carry without permanent damage.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a rotary switch with reed-type switching elements that can control relatively high currents and voltages without any potential hazard due to arcing or damage to the contacts due to atmospheric conditions.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a compound rotary switch that can be set up to provide a series of complex switching functions, for any desired purpose, wherein both the combinations of switches and the combinations of the magnetic actuators of the switches can be varied at will to perform other complex switching functions, by very simple mechanical changes, without having to change any electrical contacts.